Anemia and child education: The case of Colombia

Type Report
Title Anemia and child education: The case of Colombia
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2010
Publisher Universidad de los Andes–Facultad de Economía–Cede
City Bogota
Country/State Columbia
URL http://economia.uniandes.edu.co/publicaciones/dcede2010-25.pdf
Abstract
Welfare programs in Colombia have been focused on reducing malnutrition and hunger and on increasing school attendance rates. However, there is not much evidence on the hypothesized relationship between nutrition and education. Using the National Survey of Nutritional Status in Colombia – 2005 (ENSIN) and the Demographic and Health Survey –2005 (DHS), this paper estimates the impact of nutrition on schooling outcomes. The results suggest that anemic children have a higher probability of lagging behind in school. Malnutrition, defined by anthropometric measures, does not have an impact on schooling lags. School attendance seems to be unrelated to nutrition measures. The results are consistent under different specifications.

Related studies

»